Page 116 of Need You to Choose Me

“Here you go,” Tia, one our PR reps, says, pulling me from the cyclone of thoughts in my head.

I look at the paper extended to me before taking it. “This has all the information on it?” I ask her, scanning the top of the form.

“Everything she’ll need to know is there. What she needs to fill out, what she needs to keep blank, and where to send it back to. If she has any questions, she can call me or Louis. Just make sure she knows that the deadline to submit her application is this November. We go through them over the winter for selection in the spring.”

My eyebrows go up. “Do you get a lot?”

Tia smiles. “It depends. When we have a winning year, more people tend to apply to be part of the experience. They get to travel with the team for at least half the games, which is cheaper than game tickets and lodging.”

Olive traveling with us sounds like a great idea to me, but I don’t voice that. I’m sure there are some sort of guidelines that say there’s no bunking with interns. When we travel to away games, we’re usually partnered up and told not to stray too far. The coaches usually put a curfew on us knowing that drinking tended to happen on the nights we won, which led to more than one player nearly missing the plane or bus back home.

“Thanks, Tia. I appreciate it.”

Walking out of the building, I pull my phone out to see how her day with Belle is going. But before I can send the text, I see Clarkson walking over to me.

“O’Conner,” he greets, gesturing toward the office I just walked out of. “Did you get that internship paperwork for Olive?”

I flash him the paper in my hand. “We’ll see if she even wants to do it at this point.”

Understanding makes him dip his chin. “I talked to Moskins about the pictures. He didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“You’re sure?”

One nod. “The man can be a jackass. I get that. But he wouldn’t go that far. Believe it or not, he can appreciate privacy more than you know.”

What’s that supposed to mean? “I guess he can’t have multiple girlfriends and a wife without there being some sort of agreement to keep shit on the downlow.”

Clarkson’s lips twitch upward. “Yeah. Something like that.”

I lean back on the wall and stare up at the high ceiling. “I don’t see why people even care about what we do or who we date. We’re nothing special.”

“Speak for yourself,” Clarkson snickers. “I think I’m pretty damn awesome.”

I chuckle. “You sound like Olive. She’s always been confident about who she is. Seeing people tear her down…” My jaw ticks. She’s never let people get to her. At least, she pretends she doesn’t. But knowing her father has said shit must make it harder to ignore when other people join in. “Thanks for getting Belle to take her out. She needed it today. I think she’ll enjoy having some girl time for once. And if she sticks around, it’s good for her to have friends here too.”

“It’s never fun to see the people we care about get talked about that way,” he sympathizes. “You already made a post telling people to stop and respect your personal life. There’s not much else you can do.”

I wish there was, though. “I can tell it’s fucking with her. And her brother isn’t helping matters. He and I were never particularly close in college, so he’s not a fan of finding out we’re seeing each other.”

God only knows what her family thinks of me. I’m sure her brother told their mother some half-truth bull that isn’t going to win me any favors with the woman I know Olive is close to.

“And this is how he found out?”

Apparently, my wince confirms it.

“Brutal.”

I sigh. “Olive wanted to tell him in person.”

“Well…” His words fade.

“What?”

He lifts his shoulders. “I hate to agree with Moskins, but you made it public with her. It was bound to come out eventually because people don’t know anything about you. I told you before, man. The second they get their hands on any information it’s going to blow up no matter how small it is.”

And I’m just supposed to be okay with that because I signed up for this job? “I don’t see anything about you online.”

“That’s because we have an understanding,” he tells me as if I’m supposed to know what that means. “We’ve all got to give a little to get a little. If you want privacy, you’ve going to need to let them get to know you enough where they’re willing to respect your space. If not, they’ll always be searching for something.”

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